Trump Trauma

While we mourn the tragedy that fear, prejudice and ignorance “trumped” in the US Presidential election, now is the time to go deeper and broader with our work. There is a growing recognition that the scary situation we find ourselves in today has deep roots.

To better understand what happened—and why—we need to broaden our horizons. If we zoom out a bit, it becomes clear that Trump is not an isolated phenomenon; the forces that elected him are largely borne of rising economic insecurity and discontent with the political process. The resulting confusion and fear, unaddressed by mainstream media and politics, has been capitalized on by the far-right worldwide.

Almost everywhere in the world, unemployment is increasing, the gap between rich and poor is widening, environmental devastation is worsening, and a spiritual crisis—revealed in addiction, domestic assaults, and suicide—is deepening.

From a global perspective it becomes apparent that these many crises—to which the rise of right-wing sentiments is intimately connected—share a common root cause: a globalized economic system that is devastating not only ecosystems, but also the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

How did we end up in this situation?

Over the last three decades, governments have unquestioningly embraced “free trade” treaties that have allowed ever larger corporations to demand lower wages, fewer regulations, more tax breaks and more subsidies. These treaties enable corporations to move operations elsewhere or even to sue governments if their profit-oriented demands are not met. In the quest for “growth,” communities worldwide have had their local economies undermined and have been pulled into dependence on a volatile global economy over which they have no control.

Corporate rule is not only disenfranchising people worldwide, it is fueling climate change, destroying cultural and biological diversity, and replacing community with consumerism. These are undoubtedly scary times. Yet the very fact that the crises we face are linked can be the source of genuine empowerment. Once we understand the systemic nature of our problems, the path towards solving them—simultaneously—becomes clear.

Trade unions, environmentalists and human rights activists formed a powerful anti-trade treaty movement long before Trump came on the scene. And his policies already show that he is about strengthening corporate rule, rather than reversing it.

Re-regulating global businesses and banks is a prerequisite for genuine democracy and sustainability, for a future that is shaped not by distant financial markets but by society. By insisting that business be place-based or localized, we can start to bring the economy home.

Around the world, from the USA to India, from China to Australia, people are reweaving the social and economic fabric at the local level and are beginning to feel the profound environmental, economic, social and even spiritual benefits. Local business alliances, local finance initiatives, locally-based education and energy schemes, and, most importantly, local food movements are springing up at an exponential rate.

As the scale and pace of economic activity are reduced, anonymity gives way to face-to-face relationships, and to a closer connection to Nature. Bonds of local interdependence are strengthened, and a secure sense of personal and cultural identity begins to flourish. All of these efforts are based on the principle of connection and the celebration of diversity, presenting a genuine systemic solution to our global crises as opposed to the fear-mongering and divisiveness of the dominant discourse in the media.

Moreover, localized economies boost employment not by increasing consumption, but by relying more on human labor and creativity and less on energy-intensive technological systems—thereby reducing resource use and pollution. By redistributing economic and political power from corporate monopolies to millions of small businesses, localization revitalizes the democratic process, re-rooting political power in community.

The far-reaching solution of a global to local shift can move us beyond the left-right political theater to link hands in a diverse and united people’s movement for secure, meaningful livelihoods and a healthy planet.

Image: “The Scream”, by Edvard Munch.

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About Helena Norberg-Hodge

Helena Norberg-Hodge is founder and director of Local Futures (International Society for Ecology and Culture). A pioneer of the “new economy” movement, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than thirty years. She is the producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness, and is the author of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh. She was honored with the Right Livelihood Award for her groundbreaking work in Ladakh, and received the 2012 Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”

Comments

Helena I appreciate the work you are doing. At the local level there needs to be public dialogue on the mindless and delusional nature of unsustainable growth and trade driven by centralized debt-based currency. There are wise alternatives that already exist or can be designed through public-private partnership for new economy.

Very close, but I feel this past election in the United States has far deeper implications. A government is reflection of its people. For far too long the United States has run with a broad range of agreements which do not serve the people and produce demonstrable results, free trade being only one of them, but put all together spell disaster for a nation. Many from other parts of the world view the United States as the wild,wild west. How could that be with so much technology, so many innovative ideas, and so much intelligence under one umbrella. Why is developing an intelligent health care plan seem to be so difficult, there are many systems from around the world that have operated efficiently for decades. United States is one of the few countries where the penitentiary system is big business, draining billions of dollars out of taxpayers pockets for no apparent reason.The cost One bomb dropped on Syria would take care of the hunger problem in Detroit. The cost of two bombs would take care of housing, the cost of three bombs, infrastructure. Now lets do the math, just over the past decade, the United States has dropped thousands of bombs, not only at a huge economic cost but the thousands of tonnes of nuclear debris floating around in our atmosphere is catastrophic. Forget global warming that is the least of your problems. Thousands of drug dealers are imprisoned each year, how about Monsanto. This years election was a clown show. Did the great people of the United States have a choice…Yes if you want consider this clown or that clown. I could not believe it out of the 330 million Americans that this is what it all boiled down. Black Lives Matter, as a white middle class Canadian, I am troubled and ashamed. The issues surrounding this challenge are many. To all my friends, if you think that any of us as human beings is any different than any other human being, please reflect back. To those great peoples of a darker hew we need you all to step out and be a hand up to all those whom are treated indifferent, across all ranges where there lives are effected. A good place to start is form small groups to ensure that when your children go to school they get the education they deserve, not some diluted down form just because they live in the inner city. A lot of guns have been dropped in these communities, what we see a lot on the news is darker hew gunning down darker hew, please, please, stop this, you are not the problem, if equality is to succeed we must first recognize that there is strength in numbers. Make your voice count. A lot of words are spoken from the alter, words without action means nothing, Pastors get out there on the front lines and save your sheep. Rally to make voting day a national holiday so more middle and lower income folks can vote without loosing income. I could go on and on.

In my perception the observation ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ illustrates where we are stuck. We are brainwashed into thinking we live in a democracy, while there is no actual semblance of democracy but rather the greatest concentration of power (and corruption– if the military-insanity complex and slaughtering large numbers of innocent people rates as corruption) the world has ever seen. Helena rues Trump; the only option in a totally corrupt system was Hillary Clinton– a mass murderer (a leader in the destruction of Libya, a mouthpiece in the destruction of Syria, and supporter of the destruction of Iraq)– but nobody I know is aware of the fact or cares. Helena points out that people need to reclaim their lives at the local level but not that every individual needs to reclaim their personal power as responsible member of the biosphere.